THOUGHT #161,180 Artistic direction RAMM Creative Programme 2012-16 Collaborating with contemporary artists Below: The courtyard at RAMM “ Creative practice and cultural heritage come together in Exeter’s RAMM. Over the years the museum has worked with many artists, but recent support from partners, including Arts Council England, has enabled RAMM to collaborate with some of the country’s leading creative figures. Artists have animated the museum’s amazing collections, provided new ways of looking at our heritage, and they have encouraged dialogue and learning in the city’s Home to a Million Thoughts.” Councillor Rosie Denham Lead for Economy & Culture, Exeter City Council Councillor Rosie Denham Below: Bottom: RAMM’s Queen Street entrance Maria Lalic, Lead and Ten Colours, 2010 to 2011, consists of lead and the ten artists’ colours derived from its compounds Introduction RAMM has been at the heart of Exeter’s cultural life since 1868. For many years the museum has organised exhibitions of contemporary art and worked with artists. Over recent years RAMM has developed its creative and contemporary programme as part of its overall vision as ‘Home to a Million Thoughts’. The development project (2007-11) gave RAMM the opportunity to design artwork into the fabric of the building – a new venture for us. The success of these commissions – five pieces of art by three artists Maria Lalic, Michelle McKinney and Nicky Hirst; and the digital piece Ghostwriter by Blast Theory, which ran throughout 2012 – foreshadowed the current contemporary art programme. With Arts Council England’s Major Partner Museum funding, RAMM has strengthened its programme and introduced a more innovative approach: A combination of originated content and toured-in exhibitions, new collaborations with artists working on a variety of scalable projects, and additional expertise and advice from creative partners. The strength of RAMM lies in its stories, the collections, people, places and events that are recorded in the museum. Rather than duplicate what other contemporary art spaces do, RAMM endeavours to provide a distinctive offer, encouraging artists and partners to use the vision of ‘Home to a Million Thoughts’ as their springboard for creativity. RAMM’s ambition has been sustained and progressed. Our vision is articulated by the contemporary artists who are part of the museum’s culture. This is a review of the main strands of activity, with an emphasis on recent developments. Additional information can be found in the links at the end of this document. Ghostwriter, Blast Theory 1 Artists responding to the collections Leading contemporary artists have been invited to create responses to RAMM’s encyclopedic collections in a programme called Artist Reflections. Below: Bottom: Mark Anstee working on Polly Morgan talking at the his RAMMyriorama Arts Council Curators Day Artist Reflections RAMM’s vision is Home to a Million Thoughts. As part of the contemporary arts programme, the museum invited artists to reflect and respond to the collections with their own thoughts. The Artist Reflections are intended to stand alone as creative interventions, whilst acting as a research and development process informing RAMM’s longer-term ambitions for commissioning artwork and collaborating with artists. The artists developed responses or interventions – the reflections – inspired by the RAMM collections of one million objects. Initial suggestions arose from discussions between colleagues at Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre and RAMM as part of a series of activities explored in collaboration with partners. A long-list of names was drawn up in discussion with RAMM’s Contemporary Arts Panel during 2013, in consultation with Arts Council England and the Arts Council Collection. The first artist approached in late 2013 was Polly Morgan, an artist RAMM had long wanted to work with. Artist Reflections in outline: XXFour reflections by different artists – ‘mini-commissions’ that acted as creative interventions - over a period of time during 2014 and throughout 2015. XXThese artists reflected on the four different collection areas (antiquities, art, natural history, world cultures) but this was not a requirement. (i.e. two artists might respond to the same collection area). XXEach artist responded either via a piece of work, if they felt this was achievable within the budget, or via text, lecture, performance or another response that visitors can experience. In the event that the reflection proposed was not a tangible object, RAMM agreed with all artists it would be a piece which could be captured or recorded for future reference and learning. Participating artists: XXPolly Morgan XXMark Anstee XXSonia Boyce and Serena Korda XXRod Dickinson Below: You Are Here, 2014 Polly Morgan RAMM’s creative programming in collaboration with contemporary artists Polly Morgan Based in London, Polly studied with Scottish taxidermist George Jamieson and for more than ten years she has played with taxidermy traditions, creating unsettling sculptures that question an often sentimentalised view of the natural world. Polly’s art has caught the imagination of collectors, curators and audiences around the world. She has exhibited across the UK and in Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United States. Polly was selected to represent the UK in the exhibition Organic Matters: Women to Watch 2015 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. www.pollymorgan.co.uk The Reflection: You Are Here Polly visited in December 2013 and responded to the natural history collections, creating You Are Here which was exhibited August 2014 to March 2015 at the More in Store Viewpoint. Polly generously donated the work to be accessioned into RAMM’s collections. Polly Morgan was inspired by RAMM’s natural history collections Image © Mark Anstee RAMM’s creative programming in collaboration with contemporary artists Mark Anstee Now based in East Sussex, Mark has exhibited at the John Hansard Gallery, Southampton and Pitzhanger Manor Gallery, London. He was artist-in-residence at the Imperial War Museum North in 2014 with redblueredblue. Commissioned by IWMN, this was a 30-day drawing and multiple projection piece, performed live in the main exhibition halls of the museum to commemorate the start of the First World War. Previous achievements include being Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence at Stonehenge World Heritage Site and Artist-on-Manoeuvres onboard the Royal Navy’s flagship HMS Bulwark. Mark created work for In Flanders Field Museum, Belgium, and completed residencies at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and Castanheiro de Vento, Portugal. www.markanstee.com The Reflection: RAMMYRIORAMA Mark completed a site visit in September 2014 and responded to RAMM’s world cultures collections. His plans involved a concept poster inspired by key objects from the collections and presented through a modern take on the theatre of a 19th century ‘Myriorama’ – a RAMMYRIORAMA, displayed in the World Cultures galleries from 13 February 2015 to 3 January 2016. “ Working with RAMM on the Artist’s Reflection commission was an absolute pleasure. The brief was clear, but open enough, and the process collaborative, rigorous and professional. I felt very well supported by all members of the RAMM family and I was afforded a great deal of research time, discussion and technical assistance during the whole process. I was surprised by the final work that I produced, which, I believe is an indication of having been tested by new ideas, stimulated by debate and inspired by an extraordinary collection. I’m proud to have made a work for this unique museum.” Mark Anstee Image © Rod Dickinson RAMM’s creative programming in collaboration with contemporary artists Rod Dickinson Rod is based in Bristol where he is a lecturer at the University of the West of England. He has created installations and live events independently and as part of a team, for a variety of organisations including the Hayward Gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Longside and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Rod’s work is held in public collections including the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre. His solo exhibitions have included galleries in Frankfurt, Ljubljana, Vancouver and Washington DC. www.roddickinson.net The Reflection: Outlier Detection The artist’s interest lies in responding to historical events and material culture. Outlier Detection combines live data from http://www. legislation.gov.uk/ with a Victorian police truncheon from RAMM’s collection. The artwork monitors and measures the frequency with which UK legislation is made on an hour-by-hour basis, in real time. This data animates a digital 3D image of the truncheon causing it to break up and disintegrate. It looks for the publication of Statutory Instruments. Despite lacking the same kind of parliamentary scrutiny as primary legislation, Statutory Instruments are becoming increasingly common and now form the bulk of all legislation in the UK. Outlier Detection contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Rod Dickinson by Matt Austin Top: Bottom: The modelling of Oscar’s head Oscar © Eleanor Pearce © Matt Austin RAMM’s creative programming in collaboration with contemporary artists Sonia Boyce Based in London, Sonia has exhibited extensively including Berlin, Moscow and Guangzhou. Her work was shown at the Venice Art Biennale of 2015, and in exhibitions at Rivington Place and Tate Britain. A former director of the African & Asian Visual Artists Archive, she was awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (NESTA) and the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC); and an MBE for services to art by the Queen. In 2016 Sonia was elected as a Royal Academician (RA). Sonia is a professor at the University of the Arts, London and Middlesex University. Collections holding her work include the British Council, Tate, the V&A and the Arts Council Collection. Donald MacLellan’s portrait of Sonia is in the National Portrait Gallery. The Reflection: Oscar Sonia’s response is to the display of the tiger that was killed and donated by George V in 1911, and displayed in the Case Histories gallery.